I told Najib to quit 1MDB but he didn’t listen, says Muhyiddin

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (right) and Umno Cheras chief Datuk Seri Syed Ali Al-Habsee at the division meeting tonight. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, July 26, 2015.Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today revealed that he had asked Datuk Seri Najib Razak to step down as chairman of the board of advisers of the controversial 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) but the prime minister ignored his advice.

Muhyiddin said that he had no ill-intentions by suggesting this, but had not wanted Najib's name to be tarnished because of his involvement with the debt-ridden state investment vehicle.

"I told him to let go off his post in 1MDB, but he didn't want to listen.

"I don't have any evil intention, my will is to help him," he said when officiating an Umno Cheras meeting in Kuala Lumpur tonight.

He said 1MDB was something that could not be ignored and a solution had to be found.

"I am the first minister to make a stand on 1MDB even though the prime minister had made a decision on the matter. I said we should find a solution, not point fingers,” he said, he had been the most vocal in raising his concerns about the matter at the Umno supreme council and Cabinet meetings.

Muhyiddin said he had noted that the RM42 billion debt run up by 1MDB was a huge figure and had exceeded the budget allocations for some states in the country and was a burden to the country at a time when the ringgit was dropping.

"I have told the prime minister but I don’t dare say it in public as I fear it will be misconstrued and people will say that I was out to topple the prime minister. I don’t want a clash with the prime minister as our party is not strong,” he added. – July 26, 2015